Drops of Drabble
by New Days Dawn
Summary: Drabbles. Yaoi, het, gen, and yuri. Anime and manga universe. Alt pairings as well. Varying ratings and themes from angst to crack and everything in between, so if you don't like one, see the next.
1. Introduction

The dreaded author's note: I've decided to post a few new drabbles here. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my style of drabble writing, I write both traditional drabbles (story encapsulated in 100 words) and vignette drabbles (100 word segments that could fit into a larger story or idea.) If you don't like something, just skip onto the next. . . because there's something here for everyone. Angst, drama, yaoi, and even the occasional gen and fluff. Thank you very much for reading, and I _will_ accept constructive criticism if you don't like something. Reviews are my friend.

01. Introduction

Midvalley/Wolfwood first meeting.

* * *

There was nothing more boring than waiting around. In the old days, he would have walked away. 

Leaving the "Master's"-_oh how I hate him_- compound without permission, though, could be punished with death.

Midvalley reached for a cigarette, lighting it with a golden lighter, as a priest walked toward him. _Eye of Michael busybodies. . ._

"Got a light?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, surprised at the request as the priest, instead of scolding him, drew a crumpled cigarette from his jacket.

"Thanks," the younger man replied, sitting down next to him. "The name's Wolfwood."

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Midvalley."


	2. Love

02. Love

Vash x Milly, implied past Wolfwood/Vash and Wolfwood x Milly

* * *

Love was all about the little things. 

It was in her accepting him rather than wanting him to be something he wasn't, in her listening when he needed a sympathetic ear and talking when he needed a distraction, her accepting a rootless, dangerous life and yet bringing small touches of normality to it.

It was his understanding like no one else what it was like to lose someone they had both loved, his seeing her for who she was, his going home with her every holiday.

It wasn't fireworks and drama, nor "domestic bliss."

It was the life they wanted.


	3. Light

03. Light

No pairing

Mangaverse

* * *

She sat with the orphans in a hastily made dugout, noting how cramped, sandy, hot, and dark this shelter seemed to be, yet the alternative was even worse. She had already lost Wolfwood, who had been as her own son, to this senseless violence, and she feared the end would come in hours for the rest of them. 

"If you see light," Melanie said quietly as the deadliest possibilities ran through her mind_-the angel arm blast, the atom bomb, the Plant Gestalt going berserk, being walked out into the battle-_"It will be over very soon. I'm so sorry."


	4. The Darkness

04. Dark

Knives x Legato, Knives x Elendira implied

Mangaverse, set before TriMax #11

Warning for language. Though if that bothers you, why are you even in this fandom?

* * *

_I do not deserve His love. I am not worthy, _the slave repeated in his mind as he thrashed about in the sarcophagus, the act consisting of only moving his head a few inches to the right and to the left. 

"Keep convincing yourself of that," Elendira sneered, as she walked into the chamber to hook Legato's sarcophagus into the nourishment mixture he had demanded, and to turn the light off. "I do not wish for your screams to disturb the Master and I," she hissed. "So shut the fuck up."

_It's so dark, so cold away from you, Master. . ._


	5. Seeking Solace

05. Seeking Solace

Past Wolfwood/Vash

Animeverse

Canon spoilers, alcohol abuse, post-series.

* * *

Anything less than putting the past behind, Vash told himself, would be throwing out what Milly and Meryl did to bring him out of the darkness. 

The past remained, though, despite his best efforts. He missed Wolfwood more with each passing day. Sleep was no longer a refuge, as his dreams were a tableau of horrors experienced, and his photographic memory spared no detail. Knives, now a quadruple amputee, still filled with hatred and bitterness, demanded nonstop attention.

"A couple bottles," Vash would ask the bartender at closing time. "One for me, one for my brother."

Knives didn't drink whiskey.


	6. I Want To Break Away

06. Break Away

Past Wolfwood/Vash

Mangaverse

Angst, canonical character death, my attempt at writing an actually IC suicidal!Vash, without him becoming a weepy uke.

* * *

The drive had been in absolute silence, another painful reminder. When it was him and Wolfwood, there was noise: squawky voices emanating from the radio jury-rigged to the bike or car, their own conversations, or even the minidisc player. 

Now, the only noise was Vash's omnipresent internal monologue. _If only I'd stayed with him. If only I could have killed for a moment, I could have saved him with a couple headshots. If only I'd learned surgery. If only. . ._

"He's finally away from them," Livio whispered. "He's finally free."

_Is it wrong for me to want to never wake up?_


	7. Heaven Has Become Hell

07. Heaven

Knives x Legato

Mangaverse

Warnings: D/s implied, yaoi, angst, probably one of the darkest fics here, so turn on to the next if you're looking for happy sap.

* * *

He had been rescued by an angel. 

Others of his miserable species might look to Heaven as somewhere to go after death.

Legato had no need for death then. Nothing was more precious than to serve his Master, no reward more delicious than the honor of being Master's lover.

The pieces fell together, as much as he wanted to deny them: Elendira. Being crushed and left to die in a coffin. Recovering from his injuries, but finding Master had done the unthinkable, losing his beautiful self in the Gestalt.

Where was a man to go when Heaven had become Hell?

* * *

Author's note: Despite the last three drabbles including this one, this is NOT going to become a hopeless angstfest. I've realized that problem with my fics, so we have some humor and sap and all that good stuff on occasion. Please bear with the angst when it appears, because hey, it's a bigger part of (especially manga) canon than the happy fluff is. 


	8. Innocence

08. Innocence  
No pairing  
Animeverse  
OC, post-series.

* * *

He looked down an alley, seeking a place to hide until everyone calmed down, ducking past the watchful glances of the townspeople. His pursuers were right behind him, he knew he couldn't outrun them, but maybe if he found a good enough place to hide, they would find something else to do. 

A smile crossed his lips for the slightest of moments at evading justice for now, until he felt a strong hand grasping the back of his shirt.

"Timothy Nicholas Wolfwood," Milly growled, "If you _ever_ bring a snake into the house again, it's no allowance for a month!"

* * *

I apologize for the formatting issues here. My wordprocessing program is way out of date, and I don't like OpenOffice, so my formatting may be slightly inconsistent until I can afford a new computer this fall. 


	9. Sex Drive?

09. Drive

Pairing: Wolfwood/Vash

Yaoi

* * *

As the trip through the uncharted lands to the next outpost of civilization dragged on, they had exhausted almost every topic of conversation.

Stories about previous adventures had threaded into a couple of philosophical discussions, before those had been ignored for several rounds of stupid bodily function jokes, then stupid drunk jokes, then the cheesiest double entendres either could trade.

"I can top that," Vash said, leaning forward slightly as he held onto Wolfwood a little more, as he flicked his tongue against the priest's ear. "I really want to get off."

The next town could not arrive soon enough.


	10. Breathe Again

10. Breathe Again

Past Wolfwood/Vash implied

Mangaverse

First person Vash POV, canonical character death (for some reason, I just can't stop with these angsty drabbles!), language, and implied yaoi.

* * *

Is it selfish of me? Maybe it _is _my own fear, my own sadness wanting you to take one more breath, to look up at me as I gather your body in my arms, tell me there's no way you'd let those bastards kill you, that we're leaving this place together, that in the end we'll come back here together.

You don't answer me; I know you can't. I hope there's a next world, a green one without pain, suffering, killing.

Yet I'd give anything, even my own life, for you to breathe again, to be alive, to be _here_.


	11. Memory

11. Memory

Mangaverse

* * *

He remembered the touches of his beloved Master, cruel, rarely loving, but what he deserved, what he _needed_. Remembering this brought back the memories of rejection, of the angel he had devoted himself to throwing him aside as if he were nothing. 

That too was what he had deserved. Though unlike every other pain Master had inflicted, betrayal had hurt him so deeply that he had done the unthinkable and betrayed in return, wanting nothing more than to see both twins dead.

Memory is a weakness, he had always told himself.

Yet Legato couldn't deny the pain these memories brought.


	12. That Mary Sue Insanity

12. Insanity

Either universe

A little more than a drabble (around 200 words), and I apologize, but I'm in the mood for Sue slaps.

* * *

"My name is Princess Moonflower Sakura Roxane Armitage the Eighth," the pink-haired, glitter-covered, and horrifically sunburned girl squawked. "Not 'Mary Sue Number Three Thousand'!"

"Yes, that's what you all say," the psychiatrist said. "You convince yourselves you're some special author's creation, you dress in outrageous clothes-"

"My shimmering black leather halter top and miniskirt is not outrageous! It's so like the really kawaii look on Earth-"

"If you have forgotten, ma'am, you are not from Earth, and this is a desert planet," he said as he scribbled on his notepad. _Patient is convinced she is from Earth and capable of speaking Japanese, while in truth being no more capable of it than the average person._

"How dare you treat me like some mental patient," P.M.S. snapped. "I'm a perfect supermodel! I'm immune to weather conditions and the constraints of the universe! I'm the best gunfighter in the world! Firing the angel arm is nothing to me! I'm the long-lost oniisan of Legato Bluesummers and a Freeborn Plant! I'm having Knivesy-sama's babies! I've slept with every Gung Ho Gun! This world revolves around ME, ME, ME!"

"I need aspirin," the doctor growled to the nurse. "Now."

"For her?"

"No! For me!"


	13. Misfortune

13. Misfortune

Mangaverse

* * *

Once, the town of Barchan had held out promise of becoming the first major city not named after a month. The railroad had been directed elsewhere, though, replacing Barchan with December as its terminal city. The well was quickly drying, and only one Plant still lived.

Barchan's hundred remaining residents had been overjoyed to learn that one of their own had won the Gunsmoke Lottery's ten billion double dollar prize. To celebrate, the entire town had formed a caravan to follow the winner to his award ceremony in July.

The prize presentation had been scheduled for July 21, 104 at City Hall.


	14. The Many Smiles of Vash

14. Smile

Mangaverse

Wolfwood/Vash

* * *

The fake smiles pretended serenity and happiness that didn't exist, that couldn't exist in a world like theirs, yet Vash's half-smiles were even more painful, their guardedness hinting toward untold past wounds.

It was like he wanted to be happy when he smiled like that, but feared what was around the corner, knowing the fleetingness of pleasure and the permanence of pain.

The true smiles were different. They started with Vash's eyes and went to his lips, and seemed so happy, so free of the worries that normally haunted their days.

Those smiles were smiles of forgiveness, trust, relief, _love_.


	15. Breaking His Silence

15. Silence

Milly x Vash/Vash x Rem, inspired by Celesma's fic "All of Me"

Mangaverse, could become AU with new developments

* * *

"He's like a breathing statue," Meryl said, as they walked down the hallway aboard Mist City where Vash was being kept for observation after the last fight had ended. "I don't think we should interfere."

"It's not over yet, ma'am." Milly replied. "We're supposed to protect him, and he can't really protect himself now."

Vash sat there in bed, gazing forward with one green eye and one blue eye, hair blonde. His body appeared almost frozen in place, until his eyes focused their stare on her, and he spoke for the first time that week.

"What happened to me, Rem?"


	16. Questioning Master's Motivations

16. Questioning

Knives x Legato implied

Mangaverse

NOTE: I'm using Elendira's chosen gender pronoun. That is why I refer to her as "she" rather than "he."

* * *

"Do you _really_ think," Elendira said, puffing on her cigarette holder, "that Knives _rescued_ you from slavery?" 

"I will love Master forever for sparing me," Legato reverently breathed as he stared at the airship's controls.

"Oh, I see," she whispered. "Why do you live with him?"

"Master needs-"

Elendira smiled sweetly. "Master _wants_ to punish you, wants to hurt what you represent, and wants to have sex with you."

"He is above the humans He killed to save me."

"Only if thrift makes him above us," she sneered. "He told _me_ you weren't worth the price, so he killed everyone."


	17. Bloody Marys

17. Blood

No pairing

Either universe

WARNING: Not for the squeamish or for kids.

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The glass sat in front of him on the bar, daring him to drink.

Vash wanted to believe it _was_ only a white celery stick in a glass of tomato juice, mixer, and alcohol, wanted his throat to unclench so he could drink, yet the celery stick reminded him of bone, the garnish of tissue, the liquid of blood.

_Drink it,_ Knives had said as they sat in a similar bar, holding out a glass containing red liquid to his unwilling brother's lips, forcing them open. _Humanity is a more distant relative to us than those fruit juices you drink._

(Inspired by Sailor Lilith-Chan's fic "The Gunslinger Was Baptized In Blood.")


	18. He Missed The Rainbows

18. Rainbow

Pairing: None

Rating: K+

Either universe, OC

* * *

Some called the old man fortunate: he had made it into the final round of selection for Project SEEDS seventy years ago, which, in placing him on one of the last ships, had ironically spared him both the fate of starving to death on a depleted Earth and of dying in the Great Fall.

What most called fortune, he called misery. He missed the icy prison that was Earth, and missed family members there.

As he neared death, he became an obsessive collector of glass windchimes, as he missed the rainbows he had seen as a boy the most of all.


	19. The Calm Before The Storm

19. Gray

Milly x Vash implied

Either universe

---

On Gunsmoke, a blank gray sky was one of the most ominous signs, one that meant a typhoon was about to arrive.

For Vash, the blank calm, the gray numbness of emotion was the warning sign that something much worse was on the horizon.

Milly could never know all he was hiding, for he wouldn't tell her things he couldn't bring himself to tell anyone, and she wouldn't pry. Yet she knew something was wrong, something she nor anyone else could ever fix, that he was about to break and all she could do was repair the damage yet again.


	20. Cooling Off and Heating Up

20. Fortitude

Wolfwood/Vash

Mangaverse, inspired by a certain bit of official art where Vash is eating an ice pop. Credit for the last line here goes to Sailor Lilith-chan (lilithisbitter on LJ), who helped me think of a way to tie this back to the theme.

xxxx

_He's sitting there all sweaty and hot trying to cool off, like me and the girls._

Yet Wolfwood couldn't look away. Vash's hair was sliding down from its spikes just enough to make him look softer, more relaxed, as a blush of heat from the alcohol shaded over his face. His legs were spread enough to provide a glimpse between them. Then there was that ice pop, dripping as he slowly licked and sucked at it. _That damn ice pop._

Vash had made him a praying man after all.

_Give me the strength to wait until we get a room._


	21. Emergency Detour

Yes, I skipped theme 21.

22. Mother Nature

No pairing

* * *

Sixty iles out in the middle of nowhere, Vash suddenly paled, stopped talking, and stomped on the gas, sending them all on a death-defying race through the desert.

Finally, they reached what looked like a small stone shelter, as he brought the car to a screeching halt and ran inside.

"Is someone chasing us?" Milly asked, shaking as she stepped out of the car.

"Be careful," Meryl replied as she readied her derringers. "Maybe he saw-"

Wolfwood kicked the wooden sign, shaking off a forming dune to reveal the words "Rest Stop." _"So even the Humanoid Typhoon can't fool Mother Nature."_


	22. Meow?

23. Cat

Implied Vash x Rem crush and Wolfwood Vash relationship. Set in TriMax 11.

Note: "Lady/Lord Black Cat" is the closest English translation of Kuroneko. Since Vash canonically doesn't speak Japanese, I doubt he'd think in it, and therefore have him using English.

* * *

He sat in his room, watching the events unfold outside, knowing he probably wouldn't survive the events awaiting him, but knowing he had to be at his best, as the remaining humans were all depending on him.

There was no way he could sleep, if for the cries of the Plants alone, and as a familiar stray cat scampered across the windowsill, one thought lodged in Vash's mind and stuck there.

_I've failed to save the woman I've loved and the man I've loved. What if you're all I can save, Lady Black Cat, symbol of bad luck and loss?_


	23. Time For Love

24. No Time

Brad/Livio, set in volume 11 (thanks for the correction, ReadingWhiz. Yay scanlations.) of the manga, translation credit Molokidan at Maximum7.

"OMGWTF Brad IS DEAD you n00b!!!11" No. Brad is alive and well (and a whole lot prettier) in the manga.

Scans available at my livejournal if you want to see the scene that inspired this. There's a link in my profile.

* * *

Minutes ago, they had been shyly, surreptitiously checking each other out, hostilities forgotten as conversation yielded to tentative admiration, as tentative admiration yielded to meaningful words. 

"Are you sure we have time," Livio asked as Brad was close enough to kiss, the invitation unspoken but there. "The world's ending-"

"We've got time," Brad said. "It's only been ten minutes since you walked in here." He could say no more before Livio's mouth and his own were as one, before their clothes soon laid discarded in a haphazard pile.

At least for now, they had all the time in the world.


End file.
